How to cope with job stress

On any given day, ask a friend, a co-worker or just about anyone the question, “how’s it going?” and the response is likely to be…

Busy!

Exhausted!

Got a lot going on!

Most of us live our lives always on, rushing from home to work to our kids’ soccer games, to the gym. We’re stressed. We’re overloaded. We’re piling up tasks that need to get done in great numbers than hours in a day.

But what if the opposite were true. What if someone asked us “how’s it going and we answered…

I’m so relaxed!

I’m feeling so peaceful!

Not much going on with me!

That’s sounds so boring, doesn’t it? In a way, we like to be stressed. We like the idea that we have full lives. My happiest days are those in which I wake up feeling a little bit stressed about what I need to accomplish, meet my work deadline, and allow myself the evening to spend with my family.

The key is to find the level of stress on a regular basis that we can tolerate without harming our mental and physical health. It’s kind of like figuring our stress sweet spot — the happy middle, where we’re living in a way that makes us feel busy, but also happy and fulfilled. To do that, we need to feel like we’re thriving, rather than just trying to survive the day.

So you might be wondering how to accomplish the quest of allowing yourself to experience “good stress” without totally becoming overwhelmed by bad stress.

One way to go about it is to choose activities in your life that make you feel good, happy, and excited about life. It’s also a good idea to cut out as many activities as you can that drain you, or lead to experience chronic stress.

Another tactic is to change your perception of some of the stressors in your life by thinking like an optimist. Get into the habit of looking at stressful situations as personal challenges and the tension you would normally feel about those stressors may lessen or even turn into excitement. Getting dinner on the table during the school/work week is a stressor for me…so I’m going to figure out how to make it seem fun instead of stressful.

We can all agree that an unreasonable boss, unfair expectations at work, or an unhappy home life can create chronic stress that takes a toll. That’s the kind of bad stress that we need to handle more aggressively. But the day to day stress that takes out of our comfort zones and keeps us feeling alive and excited about life is okay. Our kids, our friends, our activities, our parents…they give us a lot to juggle — and a lot to appreciate. Start seeing some stress as a good thing and be prepared for next time someone asks you “how’s it going?” I’ve got my answer ready.